The Road to Cromer Pier
by Martin Gore
Janet’s first love arrives out of the blue after forty years. Those were simpler times for them both. Sunny childhood beach holidays, fish and chips and big copper pennies clunking into one-armed bandits.
The Wells family has run the Cromer Pier Summertime Special Show for generations. But it’s now 2009 and the recession is biting hard. Owner Janet Wells and daughter Karen are facing an uncertain future. The show must go on, and Janet gambles on a fading talent show star. But both the star and the other cast members have their demons. This is a story of love, loyalty, and luvvies. The road to Cromer Pier might be the end of their careers, or it might just be a new beginning.
My Rating:
Favorite Quotes:
Tourists. Bloody tourists. I’ve been doing this show for 30-odd years and I swear they get worse. That child today. I swear he’s been to an Al-Qaeda training camp. ADHD his parents said.
‘You know she has a reputation for the drink. What were you thinking of?’ ‘I know she does, but her agent insisted she had dried out.’ Karen laughed. ‘Let’s just say that she might have been dry at one time, but the tide came in this morning.’
The fat lady wasn’t singing, but she was certainly warming up. I should have known. In denial, I guess.
My Review:
This was a departure from my typical reading selections and I enjoyed the change and rerouting of my thought patterns, which is almost always a good thing. Mr. Gore has published but one previous book and I hope he continues to peck away at his keyboard, as he seems to have quite a knack for storytelling. Written in the third-person omniscient POV, the storylines were active, eventful, and abundant with a diverse and quirky cast of unusual and beleaguered characters. The subplots unfolded gradually and carefully with a steady rise in tension, which kept my curiosity primed.
The main timeline involved a period of struggle for the venerable yet aged theater as well as the besieged performers who seemed to be beset in all areas – marital, financial, personal, and professional. England was in the midst of a devastating recession and the theater was in danger of being shuttered, leading to the mode of the day being to scramble and pull together for one last chance, and doing so on hope and a shoestring.
I found one new addition for my Brit Word List with stitch up – which is British informal for being framed or set up.
About the Author
I am a 61-year-old Accountant who semi-retired to explore my love of creative writing. In my career, I held Board level jobs for over twenty-five years, in private, public and third sector organizations. I was born in Coventry, a city then dominated by the car industry and high volume manufacturing. Jaguar, Triumph, Talbot, Rolls Royce, Courtaulds, Massey Ferguson were the major employers, to name but a few.
When I was nine year’s old I told my long-suffering mother that as I liked English composition and drama I was going to be a Playwright. She told me that I should work hard at school and get a proper job. She was right of course.
I started as an Office Junior at Jaguar in 1973 at eleven pounds sixty-four a week. I thus grew up in the strike-torn, class-divided seventies. My first career ended in 2015 when I semi-retired as Director of Corporate services at Humberside Probation. My second career, as a Non-Executive Director, is great as it has allowed me free time to travel and indulge my passion for writing, both in novels and for theatre.
The opportunity to rekindle my interest in writing came in 2009 when I wrote my first pantomime, Cinderella, for my home group, the Walkington Pantomime Players. I have now written eight. I love theatre, particularly musical theatre, and completed the Hull Truck Theatre Playwrite course in 2010. My first play, a comedy called He’s Behind You, had its first highly successful showing in January 2016, so I intend to move forward in all three creative areas.
Pen Pals was my first novel, but a second, The Road to Cromer Pier, will be released in the Summer of 2019.
I’m an old fashioned writer I guess. I want you to laugh and to cry. I want you to believe in my characters and feel that my stories have a beginning, a middle, and a satisfactory ending.
Social Media Links
Twitter – https://twitter.com/AuthorGore
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/Martin-Gore-Author-1237780169706466/
Oh, I knew stitch up! (But my husband is British so…)
Sometimes it’s good to have a change. I’m glad it worked for you.
Gemma @ Gemma’s Book Nook
It’s so refreshing to change genres and try out something new. Great review! I’m glad you enjoyed this book
Glad you enjoyed this book!
i do need a change too so this might be the one for me as well. 🙂
Great review. I love your list of British phrases. Have you been writing them down?
Yes, I have. It is now a huge Word Document and I wish I had started it as a spreadsheet so I could alphabetize it as it has really gotten out of hand 😉
Great review.